ROSSETTI, Marie [BRENNAN, Maria] (b Norwich, 1849 x 16 March 1866; d unknown)
Marie or Maria or Mary Rossetti or Rosetti (take your pick) was a young vocalist who seems really to have got around.
She was born in Norwich, the third child of Irish surgeon-dentist Andrew Brennan (d 13 March 1850) and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Flaxman Cross (d Greyfriars, Upper King St, Norwich, 7 January 1886), who worked as a haberdasher while she brought up the children, after their father’s early death.
Son James [Andrew] (1846-1908) became a merchant’s clerk, but daughters Mary Elizabeth and Maria apparently ended up in Italy where, on 13 April 1869, Signorina Caterina Rossetta made her stage debut at Belluno as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera. Later the same year, I spot her singing the same role at Venice’s Teatro Malibran (‘vehemently applauded’).
The only sightings of a Miss Brennan in 1870 are more engagements to sing Oscar, at Tortona and in Malta, and the marriage of Mary to one Pompeo Arnaboldi in September, at Milan. I presume this was not our singer, rather her elder sister … but who knows?
In 1871, she turns up back in England. She is undoubtedly the Miss Rossetti (‘a debutante from Milan’) who sings ‘the solo parts in the choruses’ in the New Philharmonic Society’s concert Idomeneo in May, and she is definitely (‘of the principal theatres of Italy’) the Marie Rossetti who makes a ‘first appearance’ at the Crystal Palace 28 July as Marie in La Fille du régiment and then as Giselle in The Night Dancers. She was ‘especially admired’ for her ‘great promise, although immature and lacking in style ... plenty of voice and some notion how to act…’.
I spot her in concerts at Norwich ('Miss Brennan as we prefer to call her') and Warwick, then, in March 1872, she advertises that she has been engaged for the Paris Italian opera. By July, D’Oyly Carte was advertising her (‘of the Italiens’) as his client, engaged for the Alhambra and for Niblo’s Gardens. The latter was certainly true. After a return to the Crystal Palace for more Daughter of the Regiment and Martha, Marie crossed the Atlantic for a six months’ season playing the Princess Lotos-Leaf in the spectacle Leo and Lotos. ‘[She] has become a great favourite, not only by reason of her piquant beauty, but by reason of her competent and charming vocalism’.
In mid 1873, it was reported that ‘after her engagement in New York, she proceeded to Italy and has been engaged as prima donna at the Fenice, Venice for June and July’, then for the Teatro Rossini and at (?) Fiume. And then, 19 October 1875, she appears – once more as Oscar – at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, and, in August 1876, as a minor soloist alongside Patti and Lucca at St Petersburgh and Moscow! And then back at the Italiens, engaged for two months (one specific role?) in a list of sopranos topped by Patti, d'Angeri, Lucca, Heilbronn, Mauduit, Donadio ...
I see her only thrice – maybe four times – thereafter. Is she the ‘Madame Rossetti’ giving a concert in February 1877? 15 September 1877, she is in Glasgow singing at the Saturday Evening Concerts above Mr Arthur Hooper and Miss Jessie Bond, ‘Mme Rosetti’ (sic) is again a comprimaria at St Petersburg, and in 1888 (now ‘Madame Marie Rossetti’) she is on the fashionable bill at Isidore de Lara’s concert. And could she be the ‘Madame Rossetti’ singing Flora in La Traviata at Covent Garden in 1889?
Finally, ‘Madame Marie Rosetti’ can be heard singing Verdi and ballads at the Clarence Esplanade Pier, Portsmouth in June 1890. From Norwich to Niblo’s, to La Scala and St Petersburgh, to the end of a pier. Quite a trip. Where did it end?
Is she the ‘Madame Rossetti’ singing at Cheltenham in 1914? Aged nearly seventy?
Is she the Mdlle Rossetti whom W S Gilbert mentions in his diary who was to be seen in Richard D’Oyly Carte’s office in the days leading up to HMS Pinafore? I think so.
Is she the Madame Rossetti who 'resides in Rochester NY' who 'professes to be a musical medium, takes her seat at the piano and passes into a trance ..' Perhaps not.
And is she the Mdlle Rosetti who, in November 1883, is reported as marrying one General Chanzi, aide-de-camp of the King of Servia? The news made the Shields Daily Gazette. I wonder why. The name of General Chanzi was a warringly famous one: but the real General had been killed earlier the same year …
Ah! This is better! 1878 (17 December) in Hanover Square, Miss Maria Brennan of Conduit Street, daughter of James Andrew Brennan 'gentleman', married Alfred Barnard, aged 30 (b 4 March 1848), iron merchant, son of an iron merchant, of Norwich ... yes! Here it is in the Norwich press ... Maria, younger daughter of the late J A Brennan of this city .... Gotcha!
1881 there they are, back in Norwich ... 1891 they're lodging in the Savoy Buildings, no 4 , 'living on their own means' ...
